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AFL Finals – Week 2

Written by Chillo on September 15 2017

Crows and Tigers – yes, Tigers! – fans can sit back and relax this week, thanks to last week’s sterling efforts. This week it’s the AFL Semi-Finals (I always thought that was a misnomer – isn’t the ‘semi-final’ meant to be the game before the final? I digress). The Swans travel to the G tonight to take on Dangerwood and the Cats, while on Saturday evening it’s the stumbling Giants trying to progress against the late-charging Eagles at Homebush.

Thanks again to Chaos Theory for posting the team changes; here are the lineups for this weekends games. Enjoy your weekend!

It seems it is actually difficult to keep winning week after week, under pressure of elimination – who’d have thought? Geelong outplayed Sydney in all facets from the bounce, holding the Swans to their lowest score in twenty years. The Cats will go to Adelaide next week for a shot at the grand final.

I’ll also add that despite Dangerfield spending most of the game in the forward line and Jelwood having little effect on the game, the Cats still smashed Sydney in contested possessions. If they reproduce that against the Crows, it’s going to be one hell of a game.

GWS far too good for the Eagles, who did well to make it this far. Stevie J kicked 6 goals in junk time to seal his spot for the prelim and send the commentators into meltdown.
Brownlow medallists and former Supercoach beasts Sam Mitchell and Matt Priddis say farewell, as well as my favourite mispronounced name in the game, Droopy Tree.

They are deadly when Coniglio and ward can feed the outside gang of Kelly, Shiel, Scully and Whitfield and their forward line looks mobile and applies forward pressure. That has only happened a few times against average opposition in the last half year or so, but they’ve also rarely used a small forward line. Along with that I do struggle to see their backline withstanding the tigers pressure once it gets in there 50. Their shot at victory will consist of controlling the clearances and keeping the ball outside the tigers 50 (which is possible if they all fire). I expect Coniglio to tag Martin given he was basically the only man in recent years to successfully tag Danger. I’d still pick the tigers.

Some AFL Fantasy positional changes have been revealed: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-12-01/assume-the-position-fantasy-positions-locked-in
Expect these to be the same in SuperCoach. And in case you’re wondering, the forward line is still rubbish 🙁

Uh oh… former Essendon ruckman John Barnes is leading a push to sue the AFL for the effects of concussion. This could get ugly. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/former-essendon-ruckman-john-barnes-leading-player-push-to-sue-afl-over-concussion-2017

International Rules: Fyfe spent a lot of time forward. There is speculation that this could continue into next year. At around $593K, he’ll still represent good value in the midfield, but it will be worth keeping this in mind.

In potentially SuperCoach relevant news, GWS has signed ex-Collingwood defender Lachlan Keeffe as a delisted free agent. He’ll be basement-priced next year, and can play at both ends of the ground. GWS has also floated the idea of him in the ruck.